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Olivia Lamasan says shooting 'In The Name of Love' is a huge challenge for her

5/07/2011 10:36 PM

by: Rachelle Siazon

During the press con of In The Name Of Love, Olivia Lamasan (also known as Direk Olive or simply Inang to her colleagues) revealed that it took a while before Star Cinema allowed her to do this project, which is far from the usual romantic comedies. “The first time that Enrico Santos pitched the story to me, sabi ko, ‘Wow ang ganda! Pero hindi ‘yan aaprubahan ng Star Cinema.’ Alam ko yun being the creative head of Star Cinema. But I fell in love with the story and I said, ‘It is such a big challenge for me and for the rest of our team to be able to do a film noir and turn it into something that’s palatable to a broad market, specifically the audience of Star Cinema,” she began.

The award-winning director went as far as to convince the top executives of ABS-CBN because she really felt that the movie had so much potential not only in terms of the creative process, but even with its impact on the audience. “So ayun, si Malou Santos, who is our producer, sabi niya, ‘Ang ganda, pero dark noh?’ Sabi ko, ‘Malou, it’s a challenge, pero trust us, maganda ito and it’s going to be liked by everyone including the audience of Star Cinema.’ So pinabasa niya kay Charo (Santos-Concio), ganun din ang comment ni Charo. Then ginawa namin lahat, kapag pinanuod mo yung pelikula, akala mo ang simple lang niya. Pero kung paano yung screening process, sobrang hirap talaga. Nagugulat sila (the cast) na in the course of the shoot, may sariling buhay yung characters nila. That was how exciting it was.”

Direk Olive further shared that they even had a hard time finding the perfect song that would match the melancholic theme of the movie. “There was one song we all liked but we had difficulty in securing the rights. Tapos nung isang araw naliligo ako, tapos sabi ko ito sa Diyos, ‘Bakit ba hirap na hirap kami? Ano ba ang gusto mong kanta para sa pelikula?’ And then when I went down sa house, there was a song playing sa maid’s room. Tapos sa pagdating ko sa office, nung nag-committee meeting kami, sinabi sa akin na there was a final song already. Ang kanta ay ‘Where do I Begin.’ Tapos kinilabutan ako kasi yun ang kantang narinig ko pagkatapos kong kausapin ang Diyos.”

But the acclaimed director was quick to clarify that In The Name of Love won’t focus on Angel as a pole-dancer. “No, sorry to disappoint you guys, but it’s not a dance film. That’s something that I made clear to the Ad Prom team to not market it as a dance movie because it’s not. It’s not Dirty Dancing, it’s not Shall We Dance, it just so happens na the characters include a dance instructor and nagkita sila sa isang anong dance, pero hindi siya dance film,” she stated.

Top-billed by Aga Muhlach, Angel Locsin, and Jake Cuenca, In The Name of Love opens in theaters on May 11 in theaters nationwide.